


Rhabdoviridae

by kitausuret



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Spider-Man (Comicverse), Venom (Comics)
Genre: Betty is Sick of This Shit, Betty is not your damsel in distress! NOT TODAY!, Crime Master is the Worst, Eddie has had a Hell of a Week, Extended Scene, Gen, Kidnapping, Missing Scene, Mostly Canon Compliant, No Romance, Past Betty/Flash, Savage Six, Swearing, Toxin is an Angry Noodle, i love these two and i want them to interact, somebody let these poor characters live normally
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 18:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15007025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausuret/pseuds/kitausuret
Summary: Years ago, Elizabeth Brant interviewed Edward Brock at the F.E.A.S.T. Center following his seeming redemption. He'd claimed to be a changed man, wishing to atone for his sins and do better by the world.Now, in the midst of what seems to be a chaotic plot by Crime Master and the Savage Six to take out Agent Venom (who she now knows is her ex-boyfriend, Flash Thompson), Betty finds herself kidnapped by the supervillain Toxin......who is none other than Eddie Brock.Which only begs the question:what the hell happened?





	Rhabdoviridae

**Author's Note:**

> (Historian’s note: The following takes place during Venom vol. 2, between issues #19-20 (Savage Six arc).)

Betty had always wondered if her life was going to turn out this way.

She was a New Yorker, after all: born, raised, educated, and employed. This city? It was her life. She - and it - had seen everything. Alien invasions, literal gods from other dimensions, wars between superheroes… It was perhaps to be expected that she'd one day discover that her ex-boyfriend was Venom. Or, the latest Venom, at least.

What horrible irony. Flash Thompson, world's biggest Spider-Man supporter since high school, now carried the title of one of Spidey's nemeses. Betty still didn't know how to process this. It was too much, too soon, and besides, she had more pressing issues at the moment.

Like being abducted by a huge, writhing, scarlet-red version of whatever the alien side of Venom was. This was hardly her first time being kidnapped by a supervillain, but she'd be damned if she was going to be a damsel in distress. Not today, not again. And she was determined to survive this because she still owed Flash another whack across the face.

Betty growled in frustration and tugged at the tendrils the creature had bound her with. “You goddamn son of a bitch, do you have any idea the day I've had?! You better put me the fuck down!” she yelled over the wind as it kept swinging, towing her along. It turned only to snarl at her. She was half-tempted to bite it, but whatever dripped from its gaping maw looked toxic, and the sharp appendages already dug into her skin.

But, again, this? Hardly her first rodeo.

She managed to wrench a hand free and grabbed the tiny sonic pepper spray Flash had given back to her. After the first encounter with Venom several months ago - which, in hindsight, had probably been Flash trying to save her from that Crime Master guy - Peter had given her this. Funny how he knew just what the symbiote's weakness was… But it worked on Venom, so it would work on this guy too, right? Betty yanked it from her pocket and held it up.

If the creepy goo monster wanted her dead, it would have done so by now, right?

Hail Mary play.

“Put me down _right now!_ ”

It looked back, huge fangs dripping as it swung. Its voice, dual-layered, almost seemed familiar, but... “Your _little weapons_ have no impact on-”

She braced herself and pushed the button.

An ear-splitting screech cut through the air and tore about half the alien from its host. It split away in a mess of teeth and tendrils, and just for a moment, she saw the human within. She cursed herself and this horrible, rotten day because of course, of _course_ it was--

“Eddie _Brock!?_ ”

She couldn’t even hear herself over the symbiote’s agonized screech. The man’s face twisted in pain and something like betrayal in that moment. In the next split-second, though, the bonds loosened entirely and she slipped, saved only by a web-line on a streetlight and a human hand grasping hers through the tangle of red. Perhaps realizing he’d been had, Eddie dropped them both down in an alleyway.

Betty fell roughly to the ground, but at least she wasn’t airborne anymore. Eddie stood a few feet away, grasping his head as red tendrils writhed about him. She picked herself up and opened her mouth to yell at him, but he immediately cut her off. 

“What the hell was that?!” he snarled, though the symbiote no longer altered his voice. “You’re fortunate I was able to catch you or-”

“ _No! You kidnapped me! Shut the fuck up!_ ”

Shockingly, he did, and the alien remained shrunken, mostly peeled away fro his face and torso. Betty stood about five-foot-eight in these heels, but he took a step back.

“You don’t get to talk, _Edward Brock!_ Unless you’re telling me what the hell is going on!”

She advanced, seething, paying no heed to the fact that he could probably rip her apart ten times over, symbiote or no-

“You - you lying _bastard_ , I’ve been dealing with liars _all goddamn day_ and I am _sick of it!_ You looked me in the eyes two; three years ago and told me you’d changed, and I told all of New York, and I believed you! I am _fucking_ -” And without warning Betty charged forward and punched him clean across the jaw, hard enough to make him flinch (and injure her hand, but it was worth it). “-sick of it!”

He stared at her, a little thunderstruck, it seemed. “I never lied to you, Miss Brant. I had changed. At least, I believed I had.” Some kind of switch flipped at that moment, though, and his eyes, so wide just a moment ago, darkened as the symbiote began to move up over him again. “But you don't get it. _Nobody does_ . I can't change. I am cursed, again and again by these.. _demons_ ,” and another voice joined his, “and we can't escape! We didn't ask for this life! We never wanted to hurt innocents, but they forced our hand.”

“So- so you kidnapped me?! What the hell is going on?!”

Eddie snarled under his breath and turned away. He slammed a clawed fist against the bricks hard enough to knock a few pebbles out. After a few seconds, some of the red receded back from his face, but the effort had clearly worn on him.

“Brock,” she said again, “I’ve got another charge in this thing and if you don’t-"

“ _Shut up!_ ” he yelled. “I don’t care about your damn boyfriend-”

“- _ex_ -boyfriend-”

“-but he did this to us - to me! Or maybe he didn’t; maybe it was the symbiote. This… _thing_ attached to me; it’s called Toxin. You know what it wants? The only thing it’s set on? Vengeance. The same as its… grandparent.”

Betty frowned, finally giving up and sitting on the other side of the alleyway. “Okay. Fine. Aliens wanting vengeance. Clearly Flash has his under control, though, so why can’t you-”

“ _Control?_ ” He spun in place, a wild, scared grin on his face. “He only _thinks_ that. Toxin can smell it on him, that Venom has been drugged and sedated… but your hero-boy isn’t in control. I tried to save him; tried to offer him salvation, and this is what I got in return! Captured… bound… _violated…”_

“All right, that sucks, but you know what else sucks? Getting _kidnapped_. Which, in the midst of all this sob story, you still haven’t told me why you did that.”

“I- It was Crime Master!”

Her eyebrows shot up. That… actually explained a lot. Venom… Flash… Eddie… probably that Jack O’Lantern freak, too. It might even go all the way back to the _first_ time she was kidnapped, except that Spider-Man had saved her, but if that had been Flash who’d been Venom…

The effort clearly strained him, but Eddie clutched at his hair and went on. “Toxin’s last host… I met him, briefly. A police officer. I don’t know what happened to him. But this one, it hates me, and the feeling is mutual. But after I stopped Venom from taking Crime Master out, I was captured and forced to bond with this _thing_. Crime Master promised it a chance to destroy Venom if it did his bidding.”

“All right, but is that _all_ Toxin wants?”

He scoffed at her. “What else would it want?”

“I don’t know; I’m not the one bonded to the murderous tentacle alien here.” Betty shrugged wildly. “Eddie, I don’t think you’re a bad person. Granted, I’ve interviewed you maybe twice, and I was there when you fought Sandman through my office building…” She ignored his dramatic eyeroll. “But I _know_ you tried to be a better person. I’m a journalist; I know how to read people. So do you. So look at me and tell me I’m not being sincere.”

“What’s your _point?_ ”

“You’re bonded. That makes this a two-way street, right? Give Toxin a different target. We all saw how different Venom was between you and whoever the… last guy was… before Flash…” How did anyone keep _track?_

“ _Gargan_ ,” he muttered, but it sounded more like a curse.

“...Gargan? As in, _Macdonald_ Gargan? The Scorpion?” Betty ran her hands through her hair. How _many_ had there been? Then again, that probably explained why “Venom” had attacked the F.E.A.S.T. Center - Spider-Man had been spotted around there time and again.

Everything was falling into place. Like a web, everything was connected.

She could tell, however, that Eddie wouldn’t be able to maintain control much longer, and she barely had a full charge left on her device. She approached, slowly, as if Toxin were a wounded animal. Which, well, it kind of was. They shrank back against the wall, and she stopped. “Eddie. Hey. Look at me.” His eyes strained with the effort as he clutched at the symbiotic suit. “I’m not your enemy. Neither of you. Whatever Crime Master wants with me, he wants me alive, right?”

“Yes. Alive. Unharmed.”

“Okay. Good. Take me there.” Betty ignored the fear screaming in her mind to _run_ and touched his shoulder, because he was still human in there, right? He’d said the alien had been bonded with a police officer, so that meant--

Toxin snarled suddenly, wresting control back and shooting tendrils out to strike her. She yelped and hit the ground a few feet away as she heard Eddie’s voice cut through, “ _No!_ ” even as her head rang from the shock. Betty scrambled upright a little too fast.

“Don’t panic, Brock, I’m fine,” she said, internally cringing because _I_ _can’t believe I just tried to reassure a supervillain… or whatever the hell he is._ “Look, look, just… _If you can_ , find Flash. Venom. Whatever the hell he goes by. At the end of the day he always wants to be a _hero_ and he’s a huge fucking _idiot_ but what else, what _else_ is new?”

“Toxin will kill them both.”

“Two-way street.”

“You have _no idea_ what you are talking about, Ms. Brant.”

“Just remember what I said, okay?”

He looked at the floor, then away as Toxin re-wrapped his face. They spoke as one, then, an arm extended. “We need to take you to Crime Master. He will become suspicious if we do not, and he is not above destroying innocents on a whim.”

She sighed. She shouldn’t trust him. But for all his evils, she still felt an odd… kinship to him. She’d seen him at his worst; at his sickest. Eddie Brock had told her he’d changed. Maybe he had; maybe he hadn’t. Maybe deep down, he still just wanted to help people know the truth.

Maybe someday he’d be able to again.

Betty took his hand, and Toxin curled an arm around her waist, a few thick tendrils holding her in place. Eddie was probably holding it back, still, but she didn’t feel like she was going to be shredded anymore.

“Hold on,” they said before slinging a web and launching back into the air. “We will need to make it look convincing when we approach the compound.”

“Fine,” she muttered into his shoulder. “Not my first time being kidnapped. I can play a part.”

They fell silent, just for a minute. “We can see why Thompson would want you. You are strong, and smart, and brave.”

She scoffed and tried not to think about what she’d agreed to. “Well… he fucked that up. I just hope that, whatever he’s doing, it’s worth it.”

“It isn’t. Nobody in their right mind would choose this life.”

“Symbiote needs a host, though, right? So is that you talking, Toxin, or Eddie?”

No answer, aside from the quiet _thwip_ of tendrils shooting out to carry them across to the docks. Betty closed her eyes and sighed.

“For what it’s worth, I still think you can be a decent person, Eddie. Just… stop blaming everyone else for what’s happened. Maybe they wronged you, but you’re not _damned_ to this. We’ve all gone through shit. I lost my brother. Flash lost his old man. It happens.”

They swung without further conversation after that, until reaching Crime Master’s compound and Toxin tossed her roughly into a room. In the moment before they slammed the door on her, though, she swore she saw something in them: exhaustion. Sorrow. Anger.

Eddie Brock. The man who couldn’t catch a break.

She almost felt sorry for him.


End file.
